Public Safety and Profit: On the Same Wavelength?

By Jeffrey H. Birnbaum
Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Morgan O'Brien got rich the old-fashioned way, cobbling together small companies to make a big one that you've come to know as Nextel Communications.

Now O'Brien wants to get rich the Washington way -- using lobbyists. He's hired a bunch of big guns to get control of more than $5 billion worth of broadband spectrum. He wants it for a noble cause: to help first responders communicate during emergencies. But O'Brien also hopes to manage the valuable space, and that work just might make him his second fortune.

Several lawmakers, economists and interest groups are outraged. They wonder why the government should, essentially, hand over such a prime asset. "It's a get-rich-quick scheme to the tune of billions of dollars," said Jeffrey A. Eisenach, a former policy aide at the Federal Trade Commission and the White House budget office.

O'Brien defends his idea as a prudent investment for Americans who have too often seen medical and police services fall apart when serious crises strike. "I can't imagine a better or more satisfying business," he said.

O'Brien's company, Cyren Call Communications, wants Congress to set aside 30 megahertz of radio spectrum (that's a lot) now scheduled to be auctioned off early next year. Cyren Call's consultants include Wexler & Walker Public Policy Associates, the Fritts Group (run by Eddie Fritts, the ex-president of the National Association of Broadcasters), and soon (O'Brien hopes) Tom Ridge, the former secretary of Homeland Security.

Cyren Call wants the government to place the spectrum into a trust, which would, with private funding, build a nationwide wireless network for emergency workers intended to prevent the kind of communications breakdowns that happened after Hurricane Katrina and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. When first responders are not using the system, commercial customers could.

By managing the venture, Cyren Call hopes to make its money. Thanks to the company's prodding, the proposal has been endorsed by the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International, among other first-responder groups.

"It's a Robin Hood plan," Fritts said. "It takes from the rich and gives to the poor -- first responders."

But others see it as a money grab using first responders as a front, and they are fighting to stop it. "O'Brien's proposal is based on a lot of promises that we believe he can't keep," said Christopher Guttman-McCabe of CTIA-the Wireless Association. Also opposed are Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), former chairman of the House's telecommunications subcommittee, and the Consumer Electronics Association.

Opponents note that public safety agencies are already guaranteed by law to receive 24 megahertz of spectrum and have not found a way to use it all. They also question O'Brien's financing and doubt that he can attract enough money to construct the system.

At first, O'Brien wanted the spectrum to be placed into trust without any fees to the U.S. Treasury. But after an outcry, he now proposes to pay $5 billion, an amount he would raise with the aid of federal loan guarantees -- a distinction without a difference to Cyren Call's many critics.

O'Brien said he chose the company's name because it is a high-tech version of "siren," which means both a mythological nymph whose beautiful songs lured ancient ships into the rocks and a loud blast that warns people to get out of the way.

So far, it has a lot of people wailing.

The Majority Begins to Cash In

If you're a lobbyist, you can't even buy a burger for House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) under new House rules. But on Jan. 31, you can give "Hoyer for Congress" $1,000 and join him at a reception at the Hay-Adams Hotel.

For $5,000 from your political action committee, you can get really cozy with him at a "VIP private reception" that same night.

Hoyer's event will benefit his own reelection committee. But the Democratic National Committee is looking to cash in on its members in top spots on the Hill and will be featuring some new committee chairmen at fundraisers in the coming months.

Next Wednesday it's soliciting up to $15,000 per PAC for an event at Johnny's Half Shell honoring the new chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.).

Lobbyists will donate lavishly and show up in droves, but they will also point out the hypocrisy. "I am prohibited from buying a staff member a $20 lunch, but I can pay $1,000 or more to talk with that staffer's boss at a political fundraiser," said Howard Marlowe, former president of the American League of Lobbyists. "That's not what I call reform."

Stop That Spin

Democrats have promised to practice the highest ethics as they take the reins on Capitol Hill. But the House's new travel ban is "being hyped as broader than it is," said Jan W. Baran of Wiley Rein & Fielding.

For instance, lobby groups can still take lawmakers and staffers on short trips -- limited to a day and a night or, possibly, two nights. Institutions of higher education, which spend hugely on lobbying, and nonprofit foundations can provide travel without restrictions. And lawmakers can use campaign funds to visit lobbyists' meetings -- and then hold a fundraiser once they get there to offset the costs.

"It's a partial ban," said Baran, one of Washington's top ethics experts. "But it doesn't have as many holes as the gift ban, which has 23 exceptions."

Democratic Hires of the Week

The Federalist Group, to no one's surprise, was once all-GOP, but it's been on a Democratic hiring spree. Its latest addition: Moses Mercado, ex-deputy executive director of the Democratic National Committee. It also plans to change its name to something less, well, Republican-sounding.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld last week snared a top Democratic tax lobbyist, Robert J. Leonard, formerly chief counsel of the Ways and Means Committee. Citigroup has hired two D's: Paul Thornell, who worked in the Clinton White House, and Robert D. Getzoff, formerly with Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.). And the law firm Covington & Burling added former representative Michael Barnes (D-Md.) as a senior of counsel.

The revolving door rotated the other way, too. Daniel A. Turton, a former lobbyist for Timmons & Co., which represents corporate clients such as the American Petroleum Institute and DaimlerChrysler, is chief of staff to the House Rules Committee. Sean Kennedy, a former lobbyist for AT&T, has also returned to Congress as chief of staff to Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Please send your tips and personnel news to kstreet@washpost.com.